Steve,
Now you have me nervous!!! What's this "couple of year" business? Is that the life expectancy of a home-burned CD? If it is, what assurance is there that the Wonderland Music CDs are being recorded on anything superior to the drive on my PC? Should we be backing these up as we get them?
-Aaron
I got into CD-R's early, when they were still a couple bucks a disc, so I researched this subject extensively.
I've got CD-R's going on 5 years old that are just fine, and had others that went bad while still in the shrink wrap. (I won't say whose, but they started with "I" and rhymed with "mation." This was four years ago so YMMV.)
There has always been a big discrepancy between the quality of the "name brand" CD-R's and those manufactured by the OEM factories in Taiwan and China. Now here's the bad news:
They just about don't make "name brand" CD-Rs anymore. Almost ALL the CD-Rs sold in the last couple years have been OEM generics. No matter which brand name was stamped on the top.
The economics of the situation are at fault. The average consumer is perfectly happy with any disc that verifies successfully, since they can't know the longevity of the discs without researching the topic (if it even occurs to them). So of course they're going to buy the cheapest ones that verify successfully. Which means the only way a company can stay competitive is to buy third world generic discs and paint their trademark on the top. Most of the manufacturers that USED to make their own discs (TDK, Sony, Kodak, Maxell etc.) shut their expensive factories down some time ago and started rebranding the generics (or, in Kodak's case, just got out of the biz entirely).
About the only way to guarantee that your discs are the good stuff is to not ever buy discs made in Taiwan or China. Look for Japan, USA, Mexico, Ireland, Singapore (Matsushita makes high quality discs there) or EEC countries. That's where the quality factories are--the licensed ones run by the name brand companies. Don't be surprised if you can't find any at the first several stores you check, and don't expect it to be the same brands every time. Look closely and you'll find it's not uncommon to find two or three different OEM manufacturers represented in the same store by the same brand, possibly in identical packaging.
For instance, until recently you could count on Fuji brand discs to be high-quality ones made by Taiyo Yuden, a major brand media supplier in Japan. Unfortunately that's no longer the case.
I've also found Taiyo Yudens sold as TDK, Sony, Maxell, and Memorex (!). "Made in Japan" almost guarantees Taiyo Yuden, since the other Japanese manufacturer, Mitsui, only makes expensive premium grade discs.
The good stuff can often still be found (at much higher prices) in stores that supply industries that would require extra reliability--recording studio supply, medical data, etc. I recently saw a box of expensive "premium" Maxells at an Office Depot, and they were the exact same Taiyo Yudens that Fuji used to sell at regular price. Sigh.
Now the good news: The Wonderland Music Store discs I got a few weeks ago were those swell Mitsui Silvers I told you about two paragraphs ago. Every test report I've ever seen gives these discs the highest marks in the industry in every respect, and many a recording studio refuses to use anything else. As long as you store them properly and don't leave them in sunlight or in the car, they should last a good long time.
Disney deserves kudos for using them. It's also a wise move from a customer service standpoint, since it minimizes defective or self-destructing discs and guarantees that they'll play in even the worst quality players. But just so you know, I STILL backed mine up. You never know what disasters can befall . . .
There's a shareware PC program called Feurio, made specifically for burning audio CDs, that will tell you the actual manufacturer of your CD-R when you put it in the burner. If it says any of the following: Ritek (the industry leaders), CMC (suppliers to Imation, see paragraph 2), Postech, Prodisc (famous for the silver flaking off), Princo, or (horrors!) Lead Data, then that's a generic cheapo and shouldn't be trusted beyond a couple years if that. If it comes up with a brand you've actually heard of, or Taiyo Yuden, Matsushita or Mitsui, then you're most likely in good shape. And lucky.
Incidentally, the color of the disc means next to nothing. Longevity is a function of the quality (or lack thereof) of manufacture.
